Hope was sitting in the middle of the forest, his skeletons hunting for him.
Hope: "This is too easy. I get XP for my skeletons' kills, and they even bring the bodies for me to sell later. As an added bonus, they can use my skills too. This makes fighting easy. The only problem is that my skeletons are too weak. It's a good thing I upgraded them to the second rank."
He wondered what had happened to the skeleton team that went searching for the Lumination Mana Stones. Activating his Eyes of Truth skill, he saw the skeletons in a cave mining normal mana stones. "This skill is great. It even helps me see every inch of this place, but it can't see if the place is covered up or undiscovered. If the skeletons find an opening to a new cave entrance, I will be able to see that place, and because of my skills, it's easy to provide instructions from here. This is a good skill to have. My luck really helped me a lot; if I hadn't found a lich and gotten this skill, I would have been fighting non-stop right now. There are no monsters here now, so let's check my status and skills."
With his skeletons hunting and no enemies near him, Hope decided to review his skill list:
Skills:
Beast Step F (Active/Passive)
Intangible F (Active)
Eyes of Truth F (Active/Passive)
Alchemy F (Active/Passive)
Mana Vein F (Active/Passive)
Dark Affinity F (Active/Passive)
Healing Attack E (Active)
Growth (Inherited Skill)
Eater (Inherited Skill)
Blade Art E (Passive)
Undead Summon F (Active)
One with the Blade F (Passive)
Steal F (Active)
"I usually head into battle first without thinking. I need to change that. Last time I used my Eyes of Truth, I observed everything in the black market and found out that the assassin leader's defense is nearly at a D ranker's level (usually assassin stats are high in strength, agility, and mana but low in defense). I was able to come up with a strategy on the spot because of that. I think I won't be that lucky anymore. I need to come up with a solid strategy."
Hope continued: "Let's see. If I see an enemy, I use Beast Step to get closer or to move away to attack. The attacks they throw at me can be defended by the Intangible skill. Using my attack skills, I can strike them and take the upper hand. If the enemy is powerful, I can use Mana Vein and my Dark Affinity magic to kill them."
Hope: "Dark Affinity is not like normal Dark magic. I heard from my mother that affinity is a person's mana nature. A person's affinity allows them to use magic related to that affinity. For example, water affinity allows one to use water magic freely, or space affinity allows one to use space magic freely. Unlike specific magic, such as water ball or wind cutter, affinity allows a person to handle the magic in any form. So I think I can control darkness. Let's try."
Hope used Dark Bullet, a basic dark magic spell. His mana, which had been blue, turned dark in his palm, condensed into a droplet, and fired, making a hole in the tree in his path.
Hope: "Wow, this is really good. I think I can do more powerful dark magic. I should have researched dark magic when I got the skill. I heard if someone has high-level magic, they can coat their magic on a weapon and make it powerful. I need to try it. When I get back, I'll use the Hunter's free spell blog to learn more about dark magic."
"But first, let's upgrade my proficiency. The upgrade from F to E is 10 XP, and from E to D is 100 XP. I can upgrade my necessary skills by one level with my current XP. I need to strengthen my other skills by merging, so let's only increase proficiency for necessary skills."
Skills After Upgrading:
Beast Step E (Active/Passive)
Intangible E (Active)
Eyes of Truth E (Active/Passive)
Alchemy E (Active/Passive)
Mana Vein D (Active/Passive)
Dark Affinity E (Active/Passive)
Healing Attack E (Active)
Growth (Inherited Skill)
Eater (Inherited Skill)
Blade Art E (Passive)
Undead Summon D (Active)
One with the Blade F (Passive)
Steal F (Active)
"I upgraded most of my skills. This is good. Proficiency upgrades are really hard, but with the Growth skill, it became easier."
As Hope finished his upgrades, the forest around him grew eerily quiet. The once frequent rustling of nocturnal creatures ceased, replaced by an unsettling silence. Hope's senses heightened, his instincts screaming danger. He sensed that he was losing connection with one of his summoned skeletons, then he lost connection with another. He activated Eyes of Truth, and one by one, his summoned skeletons were destroyed by a scythe he couldn't see. Not only that, the hunters that had been on the floor were running towards the exit, severely wounded. Hope looked through his Eyes of Truth skill and could only see black smoke and a scythe. His summons were being destroyed one by one. Hope knew it was the boss of this floor. Finally, he looked at his last skeleton, ordered it to move to a plain area, and saw that there were no detectable monsters. Suddenly, a scythe from the skeleton's shadow split the skeleton into two. Hope saw what it was: the creature's red blood eyes looked into Hope's vision and merged into the shadows to move toward him.
A chilling breeze swept through the trees, the light from plants and insects slowly diminishing to nothing, followed by an ominous presence. Emerging from the shadows was a figure cloaked in darkness, its features obscured by the night.
Hope: "Who's there? Show yourself!"
The figure stepped forward, revealing a tall, slender being with glowing red eyes and an aura of menace. Hope looked through Eyes of Truth.
Species: Shadow Wraith
Class: None
Status: Shadow
Health: 400/400
Mana: 180/180
Strength: 99
Defense: 90
Agility: 60
Stamina: 52
Luck: 34
Intelligence: 20
Skills: 0
Rune: 1
Items: 1
A C-rank monster as the 3rd floor boss? How did the boss spawn so quickly? I heard that the boss on this floor was defeated not long ago and it was a goblin warrior, a D-rank monster. Is this monster the Night Raid boss? The night is rare in the Tower, so I don't have much information about it. But a C-rank monster as a boss? Maybe it's a mutation. Ready to battle.
The battle commenced with the Shadow Wraith launching a series of shadowy tendrils towards Hope. He activated Beast Step, dodging with swift movements and countering with his blade. The Wraith's attacks were relentless, each strike filled with dark energy.
Hope: "Intangible!" He phased through a particularly vicious attack, reappearing behind the Wraith and slashing with Blade Art. Hope thought he had struck, but the attack did not land. The body of the Shadow Wraith was fully covered in fog, and his attack never landed. The Wraith quickly shifted and swung its scythe.
Hope knew he needed to end this quickly. He moved away with Beast Step and attacked with long-range black magic. The Shadow Wraith blocked it with its scythe. While blocking and looking at Hope, he wasn't there. He used Beast Step to move and escape. The Wraith merged with the shadow and quickly appeared in front of Hope, swinging the scythe. Hope dodged, escaping by a hair. Hope moved back and decided that the only way to survive was to fight. He got into attack position and then heard a voice.
Female Voice: "Don't just stand there, boy. Attack with magic."
Hope used Dark Magic to attack from long range. The Wraith used its scythe to block it.
Hope realized what was happening and smiled. He summoned his skeletons. The skeletons moved towards the Wraith as it swung its scythe. The skeletons scattered in every direction. The Wraith attacked continuously. Hope avoided the attacks and finally jumped up. The Shadow Wraith knew where he was going to attack once he was in the air. The Wraith swung the scythe, nearly reaching Hope's neck. Hope activated Beast Step, moving to the Wraith's side and attacked with Dark Magic coated on his dagger. Hope thought it was his victory, but tendrils reflected his attack and the scythe wounded Hope from stomach to chest. His wound quickly recovered (the skeletons Hope summoned attacked the monster while Hope activated Healing Attack to heal himself quickly). Hope resumed his attack.
Hope: "Mana Vein, Dark Affinity!" He channeled his energy, launching a powerful blast of dark magic at the Wraith. The creature screamed in agony as the attack struck true in its chest. Even though the attack was critical, the monster started to attack in every direction. Hope used long-range dark magic while the blade struck inside the monster. Dark energy blade waves flew out from the monster, and its movement slowly decreased to nothing. Its body, covered in thick fog, dispersed, leaving only an item behind: a "Black Scythe." However, Hope saw that when he was about to fight, the Wraith had a rune too, but it wasn't dropped.
Hope: "Where is the rune? I saw it had a rune. Maybe it's because of the third floor. I heard that some monsters above the 10th floor have runes and are really powerful. I think I missed it. Anyway, let's return. I am really tired after the fight. Oh, someone told me to use magic in the middle of the battle. Is someone here?"
Hope asked loudly, but no one responded. Then Hope used Eyes of Truth and saw that he was the only one there, except for the monsters and the Lumination Mana Stones scattered around.
Hope: "Who was that, or was it in my head? Don't think about it. Let's just go home." Hope mined all the stones and put them in the subspace. The skeletons mined the mana stones, and Hope returned home.
When Hope arrived home, he saw reports and recruiters at Kara's front door. As Hope started to open his door, they swarmed him, asking about Kara. Hope got into his home, said, "I don't know her," and locked the door.
Kara: "A fake rock is not a good place to hide a key."
Hope was shocked but said quietly, "They are outside."
While Kara laughed.